Wind back a few years and no-one would have named Apple as being influential in the gaming sphere. Mind you, no-one would have betted on them having a world class mobile phone, either.
Now, research from DFC Intelligence suggests that it’s Apple that could help to drive the mobile game market to $11.7bn annual sales by 2014.
Though they suggest that the likes of Nintendo and Sony will still lead the market, they say that these companies have peaked, while Apple’s platforms will be responsible for the bulk of market growth over the next five years.
Linked research found that 54% of North Americans and 69% of Europeans have played a game on their mobile phone in the past year, while 45%/36% have paid for an application.
Unsurprisingly, the App Store was the most popular service for making these purchases, and 15% of all users owned an iPhone or an iPod Touch — about half of those who own a Nintendo DS.
It’s clear that Apple is pushing the gaming capabilities of its mobile devices, particularly the iPod Touch, even though game applications account for just a quarter of total apps purchased on these devices.
Originally posted on October 23, 2009 @ 8:37 am